How was your Pheasant season?

[Birddog]

How was everybodys Pheasant season? I had a very good season, shot plenty of birds here in Mn. My shorthairs are coming along nicely, and found most of my cripples, but a few did elude them. Always suks to lose game but it happens. I think the crop of birds was alot better than the DNR's roadside counts led us to believe. The past few years I've been seeing more and more CRP properties, looks good for the future of pheasant in MN!

BIRDDOG

FOR BETTER OR WORSE FISHING AND HUNTING COME FIRST

[DHotRod]

The bird hunting in Colorado was as good as you could get for Colorado. We sure could have used more snow to help bunch and hold the birds. WE had day here that we could go out and hunt them in our t-shirts. It was pretty hard on the dogs. This is the last weekend of the season. I'm taking off tomorrow and hunting thur Sunday. WE have some snow coming our way so maybe I can put a few in the bag. Well it's almost time to get the decoy's out and hunt some sky carp now until the boating season.

[Todd_NE]

Honestly,

Just ok here in NE Nebraska. Like always good cover has birds but you don't find much at all in the marginable spots like you do in a good year. We had a late harvest and I thought things would pick up but they didn't. Suprisingly I've hunted some spots that are excellent that are very closely monitored to keep people out and you don't find piles of birds there either. Just the year I guess, we're always up and down here though. Too much hail, too much chemical, too many predators, and too much CRP taken out.

Hope next year rebounds.

Todd
How ironic, how incredible, that in the relationship between man and dog we should be given the role of God, for we are so woefully miscast. - Jameson Parker

[Dr. R.]

Had a great trip to South Dakota, Aberdeen area. Literally saw thousands of pheasants on 3500 acres of private land. Conditions not the best; very wet; much corn/soy beans up. Good CRP. Daisy, my Brittany had mutiple points; one morning, heavy cover, 80 yards long, 12 consecutive points! We had plenty of limits of roosters and although I like catch and release fishing, my "shoot and release" pheasant hunting is less desireable. Birds were very wild so had to shoot mostly the dumb ones. Could not find time for my annual Iowa trip this year, but in the past have done great in the NW corner of the state. Good hunting!

[Buckeye]

I hunt behind psycho springers. Here in Ohio there were pockets of birds in the few areas that have had CRP enrollment for several years. Slim pickings otherwise. We also hunt just over the line in MI and in one area in particular had some good hunts up there. Two of us were on a trip to the Mitchell area of SD for a few days then to NW Kansas.

SD birds were way down from what we normally see but still pretty good. The locals indicated there was a lot of money spent on buying pen raised birds this year to keep the pay hunt customers happy. They said the hatch looked good but broods just didn't make it to adults. They suspect west nile or some other disease got them.

In KS the pheasants and quail were up considerably from the past couple years. Saw plenty of birds but shot horrible. Quail have been down in the past few years in the area we hunt but made a nice comeback this year.

Todd_NE what town are you from? I know some people in O'niell.

[swede sd]

Here in the part of SD that I spend most of my time, it rained almost every day during the nesting season. The broods that were hatched had a very small servival rate.-----West Nile? I think not. Mother Nature? More likley.

[Todd_NE]

I live in West Point. Grew up around Harlan County Reservoir in SC Nebraska and went to high school in Smith Center, KS.

I talked to a buddy that has a great lease, they've shot 53 wild birds the last three weekends. Guess their hens are getting in the shelterbelts! (roosters are hard on hens in bad winters.

I hunted saturday and got skunked. Hunted a good field but everything was really wild but hens that stuck for points. Oh well. Made me sweat in the -4 below. Thank god for Thermax

Good to see some birds out there though.

Todd
How ironic, how incredible, that in the relationship between man and dog we should be given the role of God, for we are so woefully miscast. - Jameson Parker